Can something borne of shit, raised in shit and filled with shit really become shit ?
I think I’ve read that at some early point it was meant to be a sort of micro-learning / educational Vine…
Wow I had not heard that. Always assumed it was the bastard child of YouTube. InstGram
Depending on your ethnicity, it was a great resource to talk about things that aren’t comfortable in the USA or the West in general. TikTok was a place for people to celebrate heritage and culture and find recipes. (So was YouTube in the early days before about 2010).
It also talked about uncomfortable topics and this was the downfall. For example, TikTok was full of live streams from the protests. Going to YouTube at the same time, the default videos were young black men talking about How to be a good citizen, how to comply with police and not be arrested, that sort of shit. TikTok algorithm promoted videos that talked about colonization and it’s lasting legacy in SouthEast Asia and the colonization of the New World and how the French drowned the offspring of their slaves in the Mekong River. YouTube algorithm promoted “serious” videos about people receiving the Holy Ghost and debating “speaking in tongues”, the authenticity of Jesus, and conspiracy theories that start with the Christian framework being the true reflection of the world. TikTok talked climate change, YouTube promoted muscle cars. TikTok was notoriously pro Palestine. It was night and day the difference, like unplugging from the Matrix. It went against the “consensus” narrative. Normal people who used TikTok were talking about “Israeli genocide.”
And then the Congressional inquiries resumed and one of the only bills receiving bipartisan approval from this Congress passed and was signed into law, all in about a week.
Now TikTok looks a lot like YouTube. Tradwives and Jesus people spreading the Gospel and people defending Trump. Moon landing wasn’t real. It’s a cesspool. Marines defending Israel. Underage girls dancing. Oxford study women singing about wanting blue eye finance white dudes. It’s just garbage and I imagine that change will suddenly result in the upcoming “ban” being rescinded.
And we will have to find somewhere else to go.
TikTok is dead.